Help with Stickley wastebasket build--wood, metal

[Warren Clemans]

Thanks--hadn't thought of that but you're right.

[Tom Bender]

An accommodation to modernism may be in order here. That container will not contain trash very well and a plastic trash bag folded over the top is going to compromise the look. You could find a plastic trash can that will sit inside and a little below the top. Adjust the size of your project to suit.

or

Make an insert of stiff paper or plastic or veneer to the size you prefer.

[Tom Bender]

You may be able to taper a piece of 1/8" x 3/4" steel by hammering the top thinner than the bottom. Or there are blacksmith hobbyists that could make hoops. You may have to pay cash or pizza and beer. Or offer to make two trash cans.

Use black paint

[Tom Bender]

Is the bottom just dropped into the lower hoop and nailed, glued or loose?

[Warren Clemans]

Is the bottom just dropped into the lower hoop and nailed, glued or loose?

The bottom is a solid disc that's tapered to fit in a rabbet cut in the side staves. So one more thing to figure out--how to cut a uniform-depth rabbet in a concave board. Slotting bit in a router table, I'm thinking.

On the points about this not being suited for modern use--you're completely right, of course, but I'm not approaching this as a rational project. I'll have a rule about only using it for balled up waste paper pulled from a typewriter. The family is going to love this.

This is turning into a perfect quarantine project. Tasks:
1. Build a round-bottom Krenov-style plane to hollow the staves.
2. Learn to hammer 1/8" steel bands into hoops that flare slightly (i.e., top circumference slightly larger than bottom) (did this--the first one came out pretty well).
3. Learn to weld the hoop ends to form continuous loops. Sure I could pay someone to do it, but far more fun to figure it out myself.
4. Source and figure out how to use round-head solid steel rivets.
5. Make the metal parts black in a historically-appropriate way. I'm currently thinking japanning (homemade "paint" using asphaltum, turps and BLO, painted on thin, then baked in the oven. Good enough for Henry Ford, good enough for me.)
6. Figure out how to cut rabbets in concave surface of staves.

Warren